Adobe Sign for Salesforce - User Guide

A guide for new Adobe Sign for Salesforce users to get comfortable with the primary objects and workflow to send an Agreement

Overview

Adobe Sign is a tightly integrated application for Salesforce that facilitates the process of obtaining a signature or approval for any documentation that requires legal signatures or auditable document processing.

The overall process of sending documents for signature closely follows the same process as sending an email, so adoption is quick and easy for most users.

Adobe Sign can help you and your company reap immediate benefits in your document and signature workflows by:

Saving time and money by eliminating snail mail, overnighting, and faxing

Sending contracts for e-signature or approval directly from Salesforce, access real-time contract history, and view saved contracts from any object

Tracking deals in real-time across your organization and also get updates with Chatter when agreements are viewed, signed, canceled, or declined

eSign in over 20 languages and support fax-back service in 50+ locales worldwide

Merging Salesforce data into documents before sending and map signer data back to Salesforce objects – automatically and seamlessly

All Adobe Sign objects and pages in Salesforce are translated to all 16 languages supported by Salesforce.com so your Salesforce users can send and track all their agreements in their native language

Note:

Salesforce is a highly customizable environment, and Adobe Sign includes a wide array of options that can speed normal business processes. This guide will present the basic default features and processes to use the application. However, your Salesforce Administrator may customize the processes for you to further automate your interaction, and thereby change the processes described herein.

This document describes the user process using Adobe Sign for Salesforce version 20 with both the Salesforce Classic Profile and the Salesforce Lightning Profile using the Adobe Sign Lightning page layout (the default page layout for version 20).

Supported Browsers

Browsers

Supported

Limitations

Microsoft® Edge

Yes

Yes

Google Chrome™

Yes

No

Mozilla® Firefox®

Yes

No

Apple® Safari®

Yes

No

Known Issues with Microsoft Edge:

When the Agreement page loads, an error may appear (similar to the below):

"This page has an error. You might just need to refresh it. Action failed"

After sending and closing the post-send "success" tab, the Agreement page does not refresh automatically to reflect agreement status. An error may appear:

"No new window detected. Please check your browser popup blocker settings before trying another action. This page can now be reloaded."

The Agreement page then can be accessed from the Agreement List

After clicking the Remind or Update actions on agreements that are in transit, the agreement page does not automatically refresh and an error may appear in the footer (similar to the below):

"This page has an error. You might just need to refresh it."

The agreement page then can be accessed fromthe Agreement List

Known Issues

There is a known issue for customers that have enabled account sharing on their Adobe Sign account.

After account sharingis enabled, users that are not party to the agreement will not be able to view the agreement (in the Salesforce environment), unless:

The agreement was created from a shared library template in the Adobe Sign library

The library template is shared in a manner that encompasses the viewer. Either:

Shared for all users in the account

Shared at the group level, where the sender and viewer are in the same group

The agreement is still viewable in the Adobe Sign environment.

Sending an Agreement Using Adobe Sign for Salesforce

“Agreements” are the objects that Adobe Sign installs into Salesforce, and are the vehicle for delivering your document to your recipients. Loosely used to describe transactions or documents out for signature.

“Recipient” is the generic term used for any signer, approver, or delegator of an Agreement (basically anyone you send the document to for some action).

Agreements can be created in several ways, depending on how your Administrator has deployed the package. The common options include:

The Agreement tab

Salesforce Objects (Contact, Lead, Opportunity, Account etc)

Chatter (Classic profile only)

Using the Lightning Profile

Creating Agreements from the Agreement Tab

1. Click the App Launcher icon in the upper-left of the screen

2. Select the Adobe Sign application

3. Click the Agreements tab

4. Click the New button

Note:

The Agreements tab will also list your agreements, and is a good searchable source to find agreements if you need to.

Creating Agreements from Salesforce Objects

To create an agreement from a common Salesforce Object:

1. Open the Salesforce object you want to send from (the image below is a Contact)

2. Scroll down to the Agreements section

3. Click the New button

Note:

Previous Agreements created from a Salesforce object (like this Contact) will be listed in the Agreements list. A great way to find an Agreement is to look at the Salesforce object (Contact, Account, etc) that the Agreement is related to.

Once you have opened a new agreement, you will need to configure it to properly reflect:

Who the Recipients are, how to verify them, and what authority they have relative to the document

The nature of the Agreement including the name, any messages you want included in the notification process, and any additional relationships you want to create in Salesforce

The actual documents that you need to be approved or signed

Which additional options do you want set if any

Define Your Recipients

The top of the Agreement is where the Recipients are defined. You must have at least one, but multiple recipients are supported.

The primary fields to configure:

1. The signature index - This number tells you where in the signature cycle this Recipient resides. 1 is the first signer, 2 is the second signer etc.

• If you configure multiple signers to use the same signature index, you will create a parallel signature step where all parties in that step are notified at the same time, and the agreement will not move to the next index point until all Recipients in the parallel step have signed/approved

2. Recipient Role – Determines how the Recipient can interact with the Agreement:

• Signers (default)– Recipients that are expected to apply at least one legal signature

• Approvers – Recipients that review and approve the document, but do not need to legally sign

• Acceptor - The Acceptor role is appropriate when the Recipient needs to acknowledge an acceptance of the Agreement without formally approving the content

• Form Filler - Designed specifically for customers that have a need to fill in form content during the signature process

• Certified Recipient - Certified Recipients can have no (zero) form fields assigned to them. During their "signature" process, they will be asked to either delegate, decline or acknowledge the agreement

• Delegators – Recipients that are not expected to complete the identified role. Rather, they will delegate their role to another party. There is a delegator option for each of the above roles (when enabled by the SFDC admin)

3. Recipient Type – This drop down option allows you to select from the Salesforce lookup fields that can be Recipients:

• Contact – Any Contact in Salesforce

• Lead – Any Lead in Salesforce

• User – Any User of Salesforce within your Salesforce Org.

• Group – A group of Users as defined in Salesforce. Only one (any one) of which will need to sign or approve. Admins will need to define your available Groups.

• Email – Recipients that are not currently listed in Salesforce as one of the other object types

For Contact, Lead, User and Group recipient types, you can type in a partial name, and then search Salesforce for matching entities. Once an entity is selected, the recipient name is displayed, with the email address listed directly under the name. If an account is associated to the recipient, that is also displayed to the right of the recipient name in parentheses.

Email recipients will need to have their email address explicitly entered.

5. Private Message – A message that is delivered only to the discrete Recipient when they gain control of the document. If nothing is added, this defaults to the Agreement Message (see below in the Details section).

Note:

To change the order of the recipients, you can click and drag the Recipients to the correct stack order

Additional controls:

Add Recipient – Click this link to add another recipient to the signature chain

Add Me – Click this link to insert yourself to the signing chain

Add CC (Carbon Copy)– Allows you to include Recipients that have no authority to interact with the agreement, they only view the document as it moves through the signature cycle

I need to sign – Checking this box inserts the sender (you) into the signature cycle either as the first or last Recipient. Much like Add Me except you must be first or last.

Host signing for the first signer -This check box will interrupt the normal email delivery process, and instead present the agreement for signature directly on the Senders local system. Designed for in person signing situations, typically on a mobile device.

Identity Verification – Just under the Recipients is a drop down box to define the type of verification you want to use. In the US and much of the EU, access to the email box (as an authenticated object) is sufficient to obtain a legally binding signature. But for customers that demand a higher standard of verification, there are options:

Email (default) – Authentication is based on access to the email box

Password – A sender generated alpha/numeric password that has to be communicated to the recipient out of band

Social – Authenticate to a third party social network like Facebook or LinkedIn

KBA (USA only) – Knowledge Based Authentication requires the recipient to enter their Social Security Number and then generates a number of non-trivial questions based on public databases

Phone – Requires the sender to supply the recipient’s phone number so an SMS code can be sent when their signature is needed

Government ID - Requires the recipient to provide an image of a passport, or government issued identification card or drivers license. The government ID or drivers license also prompt the user to provide a "selfie" to match against the ID's image

Note:

It is possible to configure Adobe Sign to allow individual verification methods per Recipient. If this is enabled, you will see the verification options between the Email Address and the Private Message

Define the Name, Message, and Additional Relationships

Just under the Recipient section are the Agreement Details. This section is the most likely to be automated by templates or other settings.

Within the Details section you will find:

1. Agreement Name – This is the name of the Agreement as it is exposed in the emails delivered to Recipients, as well as in the listing of Agreements in Salesforce (see highlights in yellow below)

2. Agreement Message – This message is applied to the email template that is delivered to all Recipients. Best used as general information or instructions for all Recipients (see highlights in green below)

a. If Recipients need individualized instructions, use the Private Message in the Recipient section

3. Additional Relationship lookups – These fields will allow you to explicitly associate an Agreement with an Account, Opportunity, or Contract

Agreement Options

The lower-right corner of the Agreement page holds a few workflow options that you may want to include:

Password protect the signed document – If applied, this password will be required to view the final PDF.

Completion Deadline – Set a date when the document will expire (auto-cancel). Great for limited time offers.

Create Reminders – Instruct Adobe Sign to send an email reminder either Every Day or Every Week until the current Recipient approves or signs the Agreement. Only the current Recipient is emailed.

Recipient Language – Determines the language of the email template and the on-screen instructions/environment for the Agreement.

Signature Type – Determines the signature type that will be pursued:

o E-signature will seek to obtain electronic signatures

o Written Signature will deliver the agreement with a cover page and instruction to print, sign and upload the agreement back to Adobe Sign.

Attach the Files

The third required section is where you attach the file you want to get signed.

You can drag and drop a file from your desktop into the files section, or attach a document from the Salesforce interface.

Documents uploaded from the local system are stored in the Salesforce CRM & Files storage space

To add a file through the menu system:

1. Click the Add Files link (upper right of the section)

2. You can attach a file (or multiple files!) from several source locations:

3. After selecting the files from the source location, click the Add Files button in the lower right corner

4. If needed, repeat steps 1-3 until the all documents are attached

Note:

When multiple documents are attached, they will present to the Recipients in the order you list them. Just like Recipients, you can click and drag the documents to re-order the stack.

Preview & Add Signature Fields – When checked, this option will open an authoring environment when you click the Next button (the Send button will change its label). Authoring fields is great if you have an ad hoc document that needs specific information added by the recipient, or if you have a contract and want to add initial fields by specific clauses.

The authoring environment will render the full agreement in a window that allows you to drag and drop form fields into place, including:

Signature / Initials

Signer Name – A typeset version of the Signature field (ie. Print Name)

Title / Company

Date Signed

Recipient Email Address

Open Text fields

Check Boxes / Radio Buttons

Once you are done adding your fields, you will then be able to Send the agreement and start the signature process.

The Agreement Tab

The integration with Salesforce almost ensures that your Agreements will be related to some object that is meaningful regarding the content of the agreement. If you sent an NDA to a Contact, then the agreement will be listed on that Contact page. By the same token, if you sent an Agreement to a Recipient from an Opportunity, both the Recipient and the Opportunity will have the Agreement in their lists.

On the chance that an Agreement is orphaned in the system, all Agreements will be listed on the Agreements tab (click Recently Viewed and select All from the menu). The list will generate showing the Agreements you are authorized to view. And the view of that list can be customized to show any (or all) of the Agreement fields.

Once an agreement is found, you can double click the name of the Agreement to open it, and then modify the status as needed. Options are:

Remind – Sends a reminder in real time

Update – Polls Adobe Sign to see if the agreement status has changed from what Salesforce believes to be true

View – Shows the content of the Agreement Documents

Delete – Deletes the Agreement record in Salesforce

Cancel – Terminates the agreement and sets it to a Canceled status

Replace Signer – This optional setting will allow you to replace the current signer (email address) with another. Great for those situations where someone has changed their email address, or is out of the office, and you need to re-direct the Agreement to another signer/approver.

The Manage Agreements Tab

The Manage Agreements tab opens a portal to your Adobe Sign user account and shows you all of the Agreements related to your userID (email address). Where this is useful in some situations, Salesforce does an excellent job of making Agreements searchable and understandable in context. Most Admins will suppress this tab in favor of keeping all activity in Salesforce.

Using the Classic Profile

Creating Agreements from the Agreement Tab

Select the Adobe Sign option from the Force.com App menu in the upper-right of the screen

Click the Agreements tab

Click the New button

Note:

The Agreements tab will also list your agreements, and is a good searchable source to find agreements if you need to

Creating Agreements from Salesforce Objects

To create an agreement from a common Salesforce Object:

Open the Salesforce object you want to send from (the image below is a Contact)

Scroll down to the related lists section and find the Agreement object

Click the New Agreement button

Note:

Previous Agreements created from a Salesforce object (like this Contact) will be listed in the Agreements list. A great way to find an Agreement is to look at the Salesforce object (Contact, Account, etc) that the Agreement is related to.

Creating Agreements from Salesforce Chatter

This option will require that your Administrator enable the Adobe Sign Chatter Settings. Once done, the Adobe Sign object can be embedded in home page and other major Salesforce objects.

To send from Chatter:

Expose the Feed

Click the More menu to show the list of options

Select Adobe Sign form the list of options

Note:

When using Chatter to send from an object like a Contact, that Contact will be inserted as the first recipient.

Once you have opened a new agreement, you will need to configure it to properly reflect:

Who the Recipients are, how to verify them, and what authority they have relative to the document

The nature of the Agreement including the name, any messages you want included in the notification process, and any additional relationships you want to create in Salesforce

The actual documents that you need to be approved or signed

Which additional options do you want set if any

Define Your Recipients

The top of the Agreement is where the Recipients are defined. You must have at least one, but multiple recipients are supported.

The primary fields to configure:

1. The signature index - This number tells you where in the signature cycle this Recipient resides. 1 is the first signer, 2 is the second signer etc.

• If you configure multiple signers to use the same signature index, you will create a parallel signature step where all parties in that step are notified at the same time, and the agreement will not move to the next index point until all Recipients in the parallel step have signed/approved

2. Recipient Role – Determines how the Recipient can interact with the Agreement:

• Signers (default)– Recipients that are expected to apply at least one legal signature

• Approvers – Recipients that review and approve the document, but do not need to legally sign

• Acceptor - The Acceptor role is appropriate when the Recipient needs to acknowledge an acceptance of the Agreement without formally approving the content

• Form Filler - Designed specifically for customers that have a need to fill in form content during the signature process

• Certified Recipient - Certified Recipients can have no (zero) form fields assigned to them. During their "signature" process, they will be asked to either delegate, decline or acknowledge the agreement

• Delegators – Recipients that are not expected to complete the identified role. Rather, they will delegate their role to another party. There is a delegator option for each of the above roles (when enabled by the SFDC admin)

3. Recipient Type – This drop down option allows you to select from the Salesforce lookup fields that can be Recipients:

• Contact – Any Contact in Salesforce

• Lead – Any Lead in Salesforce

• User – Any User of Salesforce within your Salesforce Org.

• Group – A group of Users as defined in Salesforce. Only one (any one) of which will need to sign or approve. Admins will need to define your available Groups.

• Email – Recipients that are not currently listed in Salesforce as one of the other object types

4. Recipient– Displays the individual recipient as defined by the Recipient Type

5. Private Message – A message that is delivered only to the discrete Recipient when they gain control of the document. If nothing is added, this defaults to the Agreement Message (see below in the Details section).

Note:

To change the order of the recipients, you can click and drag the Recipients to the correct stack order

Additional controls:

Add Recipient – Click this link to add another recipient to the signature chain

Add Me – Click this link to insert yourself to the signing chain

Add CC (Carbon Copy)– Allows you to include Recipients that have no authority to interact with the agreement, they only view the document as it moves through the signature cycle

I need to sign – Checking this box inserts the sender (you) into the signature cycle either as the first or last Recipient. Much like Add Me except you must be first or last.

Host signing for the first signer -This check box will interrupt the normal email delivery process, and instead present the agreement for signature directly on the Senders local system. Designed for in person signing situations, typically on a mobile device.

Identity Verification – Just under the Recipients is a drop down box to define the type of verification you want to use. In the US and much of the EU, access to the email box (as an authenticated object) is sufficient to obtain a legally binding signature. But for customers that demand a higher standard of verification, there are options:

Email (default) – Authentication is based on access to the email box

Password – A sender generated alpha/numeric password that has to be communicated to the recipient out of band

Social – Authenticate to a third party social network like Facebook or LinkedIn

KBA (USA only) – Knowledge Based Authentication requires the recipient to enter their Social Security Number and then generates a number of non-trivial questions based on public databases

Phone – Requires the sender to supply the recipient’s phone number so an SMS code can be sent when their signature is needed

Government ID - Requires the recipient to provide an image of a passport, or government issued identification card or drivers license. The government ID or drivers license also prompt the user to provide a "selfie" to match against the ID's image

Note:

It is possible to configure Adobe Sign to allow individual verification methods per Recipient. If this is enabled, you will see the verification options between the Email Address and the Private Message

Define the Name, Message, and Additional Relationships

Just under the Recipient section are the Agreement Details. This section is the most likely to be automated by templates or other settings.

Within the Details section you will find:

1. Agreement Name – This is the name of the Agreement as it is exposed in the emails delivered to Recipients, as well as in the listing of Agreements in Salesforce (see highlights in yellow below)

2. Agreement Message – This message is applied to the email template that is delivered to all Recipients. Best used as general information or instructions for all Recipients (see highlights in green below)

a. If Recipients need individualized instructions, use the Private Message in the Recipient section

3. Additional Relationship lookups – These fields will allow you to explicitly associate an Agreement with an Account, Opportunity, or Contract

Agreement Options

The lower-right corner of the Agreement page holds a few workflow options that you may want to include:

Password protect the signed document – If applied, this password will be required to view the final PDF.

Completion Deadline – Set a date when the document will expire (auto-cancel). Great for limited time offers.

Create Reminders – Instruct Adobe Sign to send an email reminder either Every Day or Every Week until the current Recipient approves or signs the Agreement. Only the current Recipient is emailed.

Recipient Language – Determines the language of the email template and the on-screen instructions/environment for the Agreement.

Signature Type – Determines the signature type that will be pursued:

o E-signature will seek to obtain electronic signatures

o Written Signature will deliver the agreement with a cover page and instruction to print, sign and upload the agreement back to Adobe Sign.

Attach the Files

The third required section is where you attach the file you want to get signed:

1. Click the Add Files link (upper right of the section)

2. You can attach a file (or multiple files!) from several source locations:

3. After selecting the files from the source location, click the Add Files button in the lower right corner

4. If needed, repeat steps 1-3 until the all documents are attached

Note:

When multiple documents are attached, they will present to the Recipients in the order you list them. Just like Recipients, you can click and drag the documents to re-order the stack.

Preview & Add Signature Fields – When checked, this option will open an authoring environment when you click the Next button (the Send button will change its label). Authoring fields is great if you have an ad hoc document that needs specific information added by the recipient, or if you have a contract and want to add initial fields by specific clauses.

The authoring environment will render the full agreement in a window that allows you to drag and drop form fields into place, including:

Signature / Initials

Signer Name – A typeset version of the Signature field (ie. Print Name)

Title / Company

Date Signed

Recipient Email Address

Open Text fields

Check Boxes / Radio Buttons

Once you are done adding your fields, you will then be able to Send the agreement and start the signature process.

The Agreement Tab

The integration with Salesforce almost ensures that your Agreements will be related to some object that is meaningful regarding the content of the agreement. If you sent an NDA to a Contact, then agreement will be listed on that Contact page. By the same token, if you sent an Agreement to a Recipient from an Opportunity, both the Recipient and the Opportunity will have the Agreement in their lists.

On the chance that an Agreement is orphaned in the system, all Agreements will be listed on the Agreements tab (select All and press Go). The list will generate showing the Agreements you are authorized to view. And the view of that list can be customized to show any (or all) of the Agreement fields.

Once an agreement is found, you can double click the name of the Agreement to open it, and then modify the status as needed. Options are:

Remind – Sends a reminder in real time

Update – Polls Adobe Sign to see if the agreement status has changed from what Salesforce believes to be true

View – Shows the content of the Agreement Documents

Delete – Deletes the Agreement record in Salesforce

Cancel – Terminates the agreement and sets it to a Canceled status

Replace Signer – This optional setting will allow you to replace the current signer (email address) with another. Great for those situations where someone has changed their email address, or is out of the office, and you need to re-direct the Agreement to another signer/approver.

The Manage Agreements Tab

If exposed, the Manage Agreements tab will open a portal to your Adobe Sign user account and show you all of the Agreements related to your userID (email address). Where this is useful in some situations, Salesforce does an excellent job of making Agreements searchable and understandable in context. Most Admins will suppress this tab in favor of keeping all activity in Salesforce.